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Republicans: Dan Maffei should reject money from special interests in next campaign

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Former Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, R-Onondaga Hill, Green Party candidate Ursula Rozum, of Syracuse, and Rep. Dan Maffei, D-DeWitt, seen at the start of a debate in November, were part of a record-setting $10 million campaign for the 24th Congressional District seat. Only Rozum refused to take money from political action committees and other special-interest groups outside of Central New York.
(Photo by Ellen Blalock/The Post-Standard)

Washington -- A national Republican group today challenged Rep. Dan Maffei to reject all campaign donations from special-interest groups, demonstrating that he is serious about campaign finance reform.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm for the House GOP, reacted to an article Sunday in which Maffei said he is supporting reforms aimed at reducing the influence of money in politics.

"Dan Maffei is in Congress because of the millions of dollars in special-interest money spent on his behalf in 2012," NRCC spokesman Ian Prior said in a statement today.

Prior added, "If Maffei truly wants to limit the influence of big money in politics, he should start in his own district and publicly reject the millions of dollars in special-interest money that will likely be spent on his behalf in 2014."

Prior had no immediate comment when asked if the NRCC would call on the Republican candidate for the 24th Congressional District seat to do the same in the 2014 election.

(Update: Prior said the NRCC will not ask the GOP candidate to decline such contributions. "The bottom line is that House Democrats like Maffei were in no rush to make any changes to campaign finance laws before Republicans gained the majority in 2010, and Democrats like Maffei show just how self-serving they are by claiming that this issue is now a priority.")

Maffei has consistently said he has no choice but to accept donations from political action committees and other special-interest groups in order to be competitive in House elections under the existing campaign finance rules.

Only Green Party candidate Ursula Rozum rejected special-interest money in the three-way 2012 race for the 24th Congressional District seat. The combined $10 million spent on the race was the most expensive for a congressional seat in Central New York history.

Rep. Greg Walden, the NRCC chairman, visited Syracuse this month on a recruiting trip to find an opponent who will challenge Maffei in 2014. The national party considers the 24th Congressional District seat among its top pickup opportunities in the next election.

The NRCC spent about $1.5 million independently of former Rep. Ann Marie Buerke, R-Onondaga Hill, to support her unsuccessful campaign against Maffei last year. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent more than $1 million independently to support Maffei.

All told, special interests from outside of Central New York spent more than $6 million as "independent expenditures" in the 2012 Buerkle-Maffei campaign rematch, according to Federal Election Commission records.

The outside groups spent $2.8 million on campaign efforts opposing Buerkle, and more than $2.4 million opposing Maffei, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington nonprofit that tracks the influence on money on federal elections.

The groups also spent more than $527,000 on efforts to support Buerkle and more than $571,000 in support of Maffei's campaign.

The independent expenditures are in addition to the money each candidate raised for their own campaigns. Buerkle and Maffei each raised more than $2 million in 2012.